About Me

Sunday, June 08, 2014

Larry Echohawk, a fairly new General Authority for the LDS church, ran a major campaign for governor of Idaho in the 1994 elections. The other major contender was not LDS. Had Echohawk won, he would've been the first American Indian governor of any state.

Echohawk had played football for BYU, and he'd worked as an attorney at Fort Hall (in Bingham and Bannock counties in Idaho) and as a politician in Bannock county. He served as Attorney General of Idaho from 1990 to 1994.

So how did the very heavily-Mormon counties in Eastern Idaho vote? For convenience, I'm just including the larger counties.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

A BYU-I religion professor's "Documents List." Holy crap. And the ratemyprofessor reviews confirm the crazy. I was under the impression that BYU got rid of this kind of religion professor with the retirement of Joseph Fielding McConkie and Randy Bott, having replaced them with very excellent, doctrinally-sound professors who actually aren't total idiots. Apparently BYU-I has a bit of keeping up to do.

A bit worried, I dug up a course list of BYU-I's Biology Department, and a list of required courses for Biology majors. Whew. At least their Biology Department is on the right track, teaching real science even if some members of the religion department can't handle it. If only that religion professor knew as much about biology as those biology professors know about religion...

In any case, here's hoping BYU-I can get rid of the CES-type religion professors and hire religion professors with a bit more credibility.

A fun side-note--my wife actually took a class from this guy. This class permanently soured her on religion courses, and not because of the false doctrine, but because of the poor teaching method.

This is cool for a couple of reasons. First, it's freaking Harvard, and it's safe to say no member of the church has ever been in the religion department here (or in any other truly top-tier school, unless you include Vanderbilt).

Second, Duff David Holland is just a cool dude. A bit quiet, unassuming, yet still friendly. The obligatory young married member of the Singles Ward Bishopric. The kind of guy who wasn't afraid to ditch Sunday School with a couple of guys in the singles ward to go visit someone in the hospital (and yes, we made it back before church ended). Who showed up to singles ward picnics and made a point of talking to the new kid. Who shied away from talk of his famous father.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame prides itself in recognizing " the contributions of those who have had a significant impact on the
evolution, development and perpetuation of rock and roll by inducting
them into the Hall of Fame."

And yet critics have noted that many of the most important bands in rock and roll have been ignored by the Hall of Fame. Most notably, Led Zeppelin, who pioneered hard rock and metal and sold hundreds of millions of albums.

Vocalist Robert Plant admits his disappointment at being ignored so long by the Hall of Fame. "Sure, it's a bit of a surprise we haven't been inducted yet. It's a bit of a shame. But we're proud of our music, and our record speaks for itself. And we're not alone in being ignored for so long--Rush and Heart were only just inducted last year, and Deep Purple, among other great bands, hasn't been inducted yet either."

Rush drummer Neil Peart, at last year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, stated that he was "deeply influenced by Led Zeppelin's music. They really deserve to be here with us." In 2009 Metallica band members expressed similar feelings towards Rush. Perhaps in another three years Led Zeppelin will finally be recognized by the Hall.

The list of bands not yet inducted is surprising. Besides Led Zeppelin and the highly influential Deep Purple, bands like Kiss, Jethro Tull, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, King Crimson (the pioneers of progressive rock), Yes, Boston, Styx, Foreigner, The Moody Blues, Bon Jovi, Peter Gabriel, and ELP are not a part of the Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, plenty of inducted artists aren't even close to rock. Many pop artists, blues artists, R&B artists, etc. are somehow part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The list includes all sorts of non-rock names no one's ever heard of, along with bigger non-rock names like Madonna and Aretha Franklin. Names that have nothing to do with rock and roll.

So why has a band like Led Zeppelin been shunned for so long? Perhaps the executives who run the Hall don't like the music. Perhaps they don't like Jimmy Page or Robert Plant. Perhaps they don't like the nonconformist sound. Perhaps they don't believe the band fits their image of an MTV world. Perhaps they want the Hall of Fame to have a more American and less British flavor. Who knows. The business executives in charge of the induction process aren't telling. In any case, the failure of the Hall of Fame to induct Led Zeppelin, as well as pioneering bands like Deep Purple and King Crimson, leave many people believing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a joke.

And as long as bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple aren't a part of the Hall of Fame, rock fans will continue to mock it.

Friday, March 01, 2013

So a few months ago I bought Microsoft Office 2010. I bought it specifically because it promised me an upgrade to Office 365 once 365 came out. When that happened several weeks ago, I created a Microsoft account (using my work email as user name) and signed up for it.

Problem is, Microsoft insists on verifying my email address before I can upgrade. I try to verify, and I'm told there's a "temporary" problem with the service. Except it's not exactly temporary. I used a Godaddy email address (my work one, attached to my website) and apparently Microsoft discriminates against Godaddy and refuses to allow those email addresses to work. Microsoft also won't allow me to change my email address/user name (in fact, they won't allow anyone to change it--a "temporary" problem that's been going on for several months now). I try to create a new user name for Microsoft and install Office 365, and I'm told I'm out of luck because I've already installed Office 365.